Persona: Wheel of Eternity
by Raidou The 16th
Summary: Sequel to HE Has Done too Much. Special thanks to Sea of Soul. The funny thing about karma... it goes round and round, and in the end, it comes back to bite you.


Shinjiro woke up in a completely... unexpected place. The inside of the building was rather old, with cracks on the wall. There were three beds in the room, two of them had papers on them".

"Why here?"

He was in front of his old bed inside the orphanage he once lived in. He looked at one of the papers, and found a drawing of a blue haired teenager, apparently teaching two kids how to fight. On the other, there the kids from the first drawing and a girl playing tag.

The nostalgia was cut short when he realized something: this building should not be standing in place. Not after being burnt down.

He then heard a voice. It did not feel distant, but it seemed to be coming from far away.

"I always wanted to be a police officer. To protect the city from the bad guys, like Phoenix Ranger.". The voice was too familiar to go unnoticed. "Aki?". He intended to follow the voice, but it seemed to be coming from nowhere, so he started wandering around aimlessly the building – which had completely its layout into a big maze, that reminded him of Tartarus, wait, what?-. After walking for some minutes he eventually found stairs leading to the floor, but something was wrong: the stairs were too damned big – which reminded him even more of Tartarus-. It was the mix of two memories that he could not care less about. Or could he? Now he was not sure himself.

After waking up from his thoughtfulness he climbed the stairs, only to hear that voice once again. "Me and Shinji would be the perfect duo. We would fight every bad guy that would appear and save the day everyday. Until Shinji turned into a bad guy himself.". This was starting to annoy him, but he could do nothing but to walk forward. He walked and walked, until he turned a corner and finally said "Okay, now this is Tartarus". Shadows. Two Gigas and one Fuzz.

BGM: Hunting – Compulsion (Digital Devil Saga 1)

"Tch. Bastards" he said while reaching to his pocket to grab his Evoker -a gun-shaped device used to summon one's Persona- to summon Castor, but found nothing there. "Shit. I ain't running away because of a damn toy. That's what fists are for.". He then took a battle stance – even without his hammer- and readied for himself for the Shadows.

The first Gigas made his move by trying to punch Shinjiro, but he easily dodged by stepping backwards and then counter attacked with a right hook on the Shadow's face. Light damage. The second Gigas came running to grab him, but he rolled out of the way, only to get caught by the first Gigas and to get shot by the Fuzz. The shot was simply a pierce attack. The Gigas released him to suffer the pain on the ground and then kicked his ribs. Heavy damage.

"Damn freaks!". As he got up from the ground, a white line crossed his vision, and a buzzing sound was heard in the back of his head. He clutched his head in pain when he heard the familiar "I am thou. Thou art I". when his right hand left the side of his beanie, he saw a tarot card of the Hierophant and time seemed to stop.

He knew exactly what to do.

"Persona!"

BGM: Danger Zone (P3P)

To his surprise, it was not Castor who heeded his call, but a knight h no horse, wearing a shining silver armor with flame motifs on its shins and chest. His helmet was engraved with golden olive leafs forming a crown. The inside of the helmet was dark, and two lit flames symbolized his eyes. The sword in his hand was similar to Caesar's -Akihiko's Persona-, but longer and painted in gold.

"From the sea of thy soul I come. I am Nero, the destroyer"

Time resumed for Shinjiro. The three Shadows were making their move.

"Time to kick some ass!" he said, as the card materialized in his hand, only to be crushed in the moment later. Nero stormed an Agidyne on the closest Gigas' face, melting it in a pool of black ooze. One more. The Persona glided closer to the Fuzz, and totally ignoring the long sword in his left hand, he pulled the key from inside of the Shadow's body and used it to slash the monster in two.

The last Gigas tried to punch Shimjiro's face yet again, but he dodged it narrowly and watched his Persona infuse the blade with fire to stab the Shadow's back, causing it to vanish in another mass of black matter. The battle was over. Nero returned to Shinjiro's mind.

He sat on the ground, took a deep breath, and then continued to walk forward, eventually reaching the stairs. When he reached the other floor, he was in front of a big door, made of drawings from the other kids of the orphanage. He opened it and saw.. two Akihikos and one Miki -what the hell?-. One Akihiko had yellow eyes and an evil smirk on his face

"Remember when Kido-sensei said that 'strength comes form will'? I didn't have the will to save my sister. I was too weak. I failed both Miki and sensei. I am worthless."

The real Akihiko lowered his head. "No." he said weakly.

"After that, I wanted to become stronger, but I only managed to hide my weakness under my gloves. I merely ran away from my problems. Isn't that right, Me?"

"Stop it"

"And you yourself said that you finally became "stronger" when you started fighting the damn Shadows. Bullshit. Shinji still died and I could do nothing about it. I was still the same worthless wannabe hero."

Akihiko was rendered speechless.

"What do you have to say now, 'me'?"

"Shut up. Stop saying you are me. You're nothing like me." tears could not be fought against.

"You're not me!"

The clone was suddenly engulfed in aura. "That's right. I'm myself now. And you'll die here, you piece of shit!"

In the next moment, there were a bunch of kids storming through the door. One of them was Mitsuru.

"What the hell?" said the tough looking one.

"Dammit, we were too late!" said the one with the headphones.

"Get ready, everyone!" said the silver haired one.

Shinjiro was in shock. So was Mitsuru when she saw him.

"My god! Shinjiro, is that you? How?" asked the dumbfounded woman.

"Don't ask me, dammit. Just get ready!" said Shinjiro as the Shadow started to transform.


End file.
